Title page from 'Lake Scenery of England'

James Baker Pyne abandoned a career in law in favour of becoming a painter. Despite having no formal training, he was elected Vice President of the Society of British Artists.

In 1848 he began a series of paintings of the Lake District, commissioned by the Manchester art dealers Thomas Agnew & Sons. Pyne’s original paintings were translated into a series of colour lithographs by T Picken and published in 1859 by Day & Son, "lithographers to the Queen". The title page shows an artist’s portfolio and umbrella resting casually by the waterfall.